Patterns of Prescription Medication Use during the First Trimester of Pregnancy in the United States, 1997–2018

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Clin Pharmacol Ther
• Personal Author:
  Werler, Martha M. ; Kerr, Stephen M. ; Ailes, Elizabeth C. ; Reefhuis, Jennita ; Gilboa, Suzanne M. ; Browne, Marilyn L. ; Kelley, Katherine E. ; Hernandez-Diaz, Sonia ; Smith-Webb, Rashida S. ; Garcia, Michelle Huezo ; Mitchell, Allen A.
• Corporate Authors:
  The National Birth Defects Prevention Study and Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposureS
• Description:
  The objective of this analysis was to describe patterns of prescription medication use during pregnancy, including secular trends, with consideration of indication, and distributions of use within demographic subgroups. We conducted a descriptive secondary analysis using data from 9,755 women whose infants served as controls in two large United States case-control studies from 1997-2011 and 2014-2018. After excluding vitamin, herbal, mineral, vaccine, i.v. fluid, and topical products and over-the-counter medications, the proportion of women that reported taking at least one prescription medication in the first trimester increased over the study years, from 37% to 50% of women. The corresponding proportions increased with increasing maternal age and years of education, were highest for non-Hispanic White women (47%) and lowest for Hispanic women (24%). The most common indication for first trimester use of a medication was infection (12-15%). Increases were observed across the years for medications used for indications related to nausea/vomiting, depression/anxiety, infertility, thyroid disease, diabetes, and epilepsy. The largest relative increase in use among women was observed for medications to treat nausea/vomiting, which increased from 3.8% in the earliest years of the study (1997-2001) to 14.8% in 2014-2018, driven in large part by ondansetron use. Prescription medication use in the first trimester of pregnancy is common and increasing. Many medical conditions require treatments among pregnant women, often involving pharmacotherapy, which necessitates consideration of the risk and safety profiles for both mother and fetus.
• Subjects:
  Female Humans Nausea Pregnancy Pregnancy Trimester, First Prescription Drugs Prescriptions United States Vomiting
• Source:
  Clin Pharmacol Ther. 114(4):836-844
• Pubmed ID:
  37356083
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10949220
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CDP 13-003/HX/HSRD VAUnited States/ ; U01 DD001304/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DD001224/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DD001227/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/ ; CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DD001032/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DD001037/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/ ; EP-D-18-001/EPA/EPAUnited States/ ; U01 DD001300/DD/NCBDD CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  114
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:035f3e04145782a505497cd7e6c7ddd61ad34f7f655fb537f6da539bab58427c9c366d5762b448fe18cebe88cde00595d0076e6fce5357c0a62c4f6de113a05e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/151773/cdc_151773_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 546.61 KB ]